SHOP THE LOOK

So if you’ve read any of my mama/parenting posts you know I had to end of having a C-Section with Harlie. The one single thing I was determined NOT to have. But now, my scar is almost completely skin tone colored, and so low I can still wear a bikini and it not show. I was definitely still hurting, but about 5 days after we got home from the hospital I got out my free weights and started doing some very light upper body exercises.

Now, I’m not recommending you start doing any of what I’m going to talk about in this blog post, unless you feel your body is okay. If you have/had any major complications, you’re better off waiting until cleared by your doctor. If you had a natural delivery, you should be good to go within a couple days to do all these workouts! My good friend said she was doing planks 2 days after getting home lol. She was determined! Sarah was actually my inspiration to get on it after I had Harlie because when I went over there to see her and her little girl about 2 weeks after she delivered, I swear she looked exactly like she did pre-baby.

So here’s a few things you can do (when your body is ready) post-delivery at home.

1. Pelvic Floor Muscles. Now this is a little TMI, but we’re all women here. We know if you delivered naturally you’re going to need a kick start in tightening up downstairs. If you don’t know how to do this exercise, pretend like you are trying to stop peeing midstream. That’s what you should be doing as the “exercise”. Try 5 rounds of 10 “pulses”. This will also help the chance of accidentally leaking urine as you recover. If you had a C-Section like me, I still did these because I did labor and tried to push so she was extremely low in the birth canal and hitting my cervix.

2. Walking. High impact workouts are a big no-no for 6-12 weeks depending if you delivered naturally or not. I joined boot camp at around 15 weeks post partum. I still had to do plenty of modifications, especially ab workouts because I still had a pulling sensation that I did not want to tear. Walking is a great cardio workout for new moms. You can get your little one out for some fresh air with you and you can modify your walk. If you’re comfortable with it, do 10-20 lunges while you push the stroller. You’ll be able to hold on for balance and get in a little booty lifting. You can also try walking up a small hill to activate your quads and hamstrings. Again, no running as it can do much more damage than good.

3. Calisthenics.These are some of my favorite at home exercises. You can lay on your side and do various leg lifts to help build you both and leg muscles back up. Do small pulses, high leg lifts, bend your leg and lift it in a V shape for a killer butt workout. Need a video for this? Try THIS one.

4. Belly Strengthening. The quickest way to get your back to stop hurting and support your spine is by having strong stomach muscles. If you had a C-Section you really can’t do any of these for at least 6 weeks, even then -modify! But as for my natural birth ladies… start out with something simple like planks. This doesn’t pull on anything and you can see where you’re at with soreness. Next you can lay on your back and pull your knees up with your feet flat on the floor. With your head off the ground, reach side to side touching your ankles. We call this at boot camp “Ankle Reaches” and it helps with the obliques as well. You can also do a V Hold, which is balancing yourself on the top part of your booty and holding your hands by the sides of your quads/knees along with your feet about 4-6” off the ground straight out in front of you. These are all great core strengthening workouts you can do besides crunches which may pull.

I also recommend getting yourself a belly garment of some kind. I used one just like THIS one the day after I delivered in the hospital after getting clearance from my nurse. I truly think this was a big factor in getting back in my pre baby jeans so fast. Another key element is breastfeeding (if possible). They say you can burn roughly 600 calories a DAY from breastfeeding! That’s like an hour long spin class by just sitting there nursing your baby!

I’ll link a few of my favorite at home items to have for workouts that don’t break the bank and can be used for multiple exercises below in the gallery.

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I hope this helps a little, if you would like to ask any questions about how I got back in shape feel free! You can message me on Facebook or comment below. Thanks for reading!